“Lion Dromes originally started as a spinoff of Walls of Death: enclosed arenas where small cars and motorcycles kicked gravity square in the beanbags with a boot made out of centrifugal force. But of course, driving sideways in defiance of how everything should be wasn’t entertaining enough for the discerning, cane-fighting supercriminals of yesteryear. So they added lions, naturally”

quote/
Health insurance coverage for state and local government employees has undergone significant changes over the past decade. Although state and local governments still provide comprehensive coverage to most employees, the total percentage of employees who are covered by insurance has declined. In addition, a higher proportion of health care costs have shifted to employees, and a larger percentage of employees are now enrolled in contributory plans that require employees to pay premiums. Coverage for benefits has also changed; more employees have restricted health plans or plans with limited coverage, requiring them to pay deductibles or coinsurance.
/unquote

And think of the trend towards outsourcing of government services, too, sometimes primarily motivated b/c you can move the work to one with lower benefits — it creates workplace tension if some FT _employees_ are treated differently from others, so make them non-employees.

6: When are the Bush-tax-cuts-to-create-jobs going to kick in and create more jobs than the crushing job-killing-Clinton-tax-hikes???

It looks like all income sectors except for over 65 saw peak incomes circa 2000 and other than the pump and dump asset price bubble artificially creating income circa 2005-6, things have been in decline since the beginning of the century.

Meanwhile, Social Security and Medicare has worked well to give those over 65 a share of the growing economy, but one can hardly argue they are a high income group which can pay a lot in taxes or give up benefits without sacrifice.